Are we still in the terms of steemit ideology or it's completely lost after HF-19?
From the very beginning I must say that it's not a whining post. It's just my personal thoughts about the subject, and I don't pretend them to be true. But anyway I had them for the last few weeks, and today a post by @karenmckersie "What happened to my beloved steemit?" pushed me to write them down.
I'm here on the platform since last year, joined in December. And since that first day I posted regularly, regularly means every day. And all the time I put lots of effort to ,make my posts bright, interesting, educating and useful. Or at least one of these. Every day work to make my blog nice and at least making people smile.
That means that all the time I'm creating original content for the platform for more them half a year. I made friends here on steemit, and I communicate a lot here (my posting bar is over 10.000 now, and I don't write spam comments like "nice post").
I never was the one to receive regularly high rewards here. Yes, technically I'm a dolphin (well, at least the steemit board of honor says so), but it's only because I was in long power up after HF-18, must of us were cause it was hard time for the platform. I remember the "Feel the burn" challenge, when we were trying to help the steem price to grow with burning SBD on promoting content. That everything felt like a true community. But the fact that I'm technically a dolphin doesn't give me anything. Except...
What do we have now? Instant "follow me" and "upvote me" spam in comments. Not only in comments, but in personal chat too, everywhere. That' what my 68 reputation gives me at the moment, newbies keep thinking that it means that I can give a high upvote or something.
But I can't.
And more then that - at the moment 5$ post reward looks like a great success to me. I can't understand why so, why now it takes me so much effort while I'm trying to do my best so hard?
It may look like a whining, partly it is, but only because I already feel really exhausted. One of my biggest dreams is to have a successful blog, but seems like it'll never become true. It was more or less OK when the platform was small, but now I feel really frustrated. What do I do wrong? Or may be I'm just a completely boring person, and no matter how hard I try it'll stay like that?
Yes, English is not my native, so I can't write articles with humor and interesting language as I would do it on my native. But still I'm an artist here, and art in an international language. Is my art that bad? Well, I doubt it, cause otherwise I would have no clients at all. Then what's wrong with me?
I really dream about a possibility to make one or two high quality post a day, and earn enough to at least feed my dog with it. Like some of my favorite steemians do, like Ophelia Fu, for example. But now I get noticed so rarely, that it makes such dream completely impossible.
If I feel like that, what do newbies feel? These newbies who are not "upvote for upvote" and "follow for follow" spammers, but those who create valuable content and never get noticed?
Private party for investors - that's what I recently heard about steemit. Is it true? I don't know. Is it fair if it's true? Of course it is, those who invested are absolutely the first ones to get rewarded, but... I see for sure that it's not 100% true.
Now what options do I have? I never asked for follows and upvotes, and I never will. Seems like I'll just keep blogging until I'll be absolutely sure that I really am a boring person. It pursued me for all my life, and here I only see the confirmation of it. Being a white crow for all life is hard sometimes, and I really am a white crow in lots of aspects in my life.
So the point of this all is - it really makes me sad. And makes me thinking is it worth my effort to continue creating posts, cause no matter will I put a single picture and only write a few words, or I'll spend hours on creating a post with showing process and full description - the result will be the same.
I've been on steemit for good two weeks right now. And i feel what you are saying. I am in no position to be an authority as you guys have spent so much more time here than i do. But nevertheless here is my experience so far.
It's a roller-coaster. I've had some great luck on a few of my posts so far. And i get a feeling that there is not that much correlation between spending a few hours on a longer post or just a snapshot of a picture i made previously. While posting an image with a few lines does not take much time, it did when it was created. As most of your art here guys. While my photos do not have resale value as it was done for fun and it is my hobby i have invested heavily in gear and time. Photography is an expensive process.
But that's not the point. The point is that i really like doing this. Taking photographs and posting them here on steemit. Steemit is still in Beta, so it has it's flaws. Naturally. When YouTube was first launched it certainly did not look like it does today. And it was not rewarding at all. And people still created content for it. Somebody gave up, somebody continued, and all of us would like to be in the shoes of those who continued posting on YouTube when it totally did not make sense at all.
As for now it is hard to follow people you like, it gets lost in good posts of other authors, not that good resteems, in spam posts of masses. But that can be fixed with a few UI changes that i am sure or hope will come some day.
It's getting tl:dr and i can not experience what you are feeling as you have been through so much more than me here on steemit. But try to have some rest, you might probably have been burned out a little. Do it only as long as you still enjoy it. Think about it as it does not pay at all and if occasionally it rewards you it's for the better. There are certainly much better ways to earn money today than blogging on steemit, but for a guy somewhere where 1 USD gets him through the day it is a great platform. I believe that it is still in very early days and will develop to a platform where great content will get rewarded more. On the other hand, if you are chasing popularity... YouTube stars mostly post bullshit videos too.
Panem et circenses.
While posting an image with a few lines does not take much time, it did when it was created - EXACTLY!!!
And some people, who write articles directly on steemit do not like this. They say, oh, you dropped an image of a nice girl and you are cashing out :) @inber don't be discouraged :) I am sure you will be rewarded when price of steem will rise to some $100 :) Don;t use it to feed you dogs, look at this as an investment opportunity ;) And do this only when you feel like it :)
That's a way to go:)
Hi @inber I've written an article about you, check it out if you can, thanks.
21 Best Steemians Of The Day To Follow 6th August 2017
https://steemit.com/steemit/@jzeek/21-best-steemians-of-the-day-to-follow-6th-august-2017
Thank you, I'll check out.
P.S. There's a typo. 68 reputation, not 66
Well said @bescouted! We have to remember that Steemit is in Beta. Its like the primordial earth. Not plants or trees yet ;)
And volcanoes erupting everywhere, and spitting ash and shaking ground. A chaos that will eventually turn into something beautiful :)
I hope so! I might have to draw this :)
And title "Steemit beta" ?:) I hope i do not miss that somehow :) Would love to see the final result.
I will seriously keep it in mind. Taking a break from the art atm.
I need a break from art once in a while too. To regain that creative mana :) Strange thing if you think about it. How it can be depleted.. but it can :) I'll be waiting for your comeback with a new strength and new ideas :)
Oh yes, the mana was low these past two weeks. Nice to chill out for a bit. Thank you man :)
I think the problem starts when people start to look at posting here as a job, not a hobby. I say do what you enjoy. If I put up a post that earns a few bucks I am happy. The last site, Rabadaba, I was on took one MILLION upvotes to earn $10! It would take me over a YEAR to make $10 there. So coming from that, this place is great!
I know it is hard to see others making so much. I wish I could make it too. I just put up what I like and enjoy my time here :)
That's not only about earning, it's also about getting appreciation about work I do
Make sure to not be sharing things just with the Steemit community (not just you specifically, anyone reading this), which definitely does not work out for payouts, but if you are looking for appreciation for what you do, make sure to have accounts on Twitter, Reddit, probably even the evil Facebook (I don't go this far). I just recently had a post with almost 800 views and less than $2 payout https://steemit.com/lbry/@cryplectibles/lbry-a-quick-look-inside-and-why-steemit-should-keep-an-eye-on-lbry At least I know the info got to people, I like seeing that way more than a hundred votes and two views on a post, stupid bots. Sorry, off ranting now, good topic.
I can't support that multiple blogs, it will take all my time and nothing will leave for creativity, what I'm for after all. But thank you for your advice and support!
Twitter and Reddit and even Facebook are not blogs, just social networks. They are like Icing if Steemit was a cake. You can share the things you make on Steemit with links and things like that, you really should look into it if you want the most appreciation for the content you create or even curate.
Steemit is more in "competition" with sites like Medium, tumblr, blogspot, etc.
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I agree with you, if only they all would just see it like we do.
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I like your attitude. Always good to keep opportunity and fun in perspective.
Exactly, i have uploaded over 1000 stock images to one of stock photography websites to earn $100 :)
I feel exactly the way you do. I wrote about it quite a while back and many people agreed on this particular feeling. If so many of us feel this way though, why is it that nothing is changing? Us loyal members without deep pockets to invest with, we are being drowned out by newbies who don't care about anything but followers and votes. And on the other side, we are largely being ignored by the bigger members, who mainly seem to be upvoting the same people.
It's so frustrating and I'm slowly losing my faith in the platform. It's getting harder for me to keep up with my post amounts aswell. If this feeling is shared with so many content contributors, I feel the value of the platform as a whole will simply drop once we've all lost faith and don't produce the content anymore.
That's what I feel, exactly. Only some of us who has been here for a long time still receive something for valuable posts, all the rest are completely lost.
I also begin loosing my will to create content. What for? I can speak to myself if needed, and it'll take me less effort
Exactly. It's such a shame! I keep on hoping things will change and I'll keep on posting a bit, because I have met some nice people here. It just doesn't feel like it used to anymore.
Well, atleast I try to upvote the people I follow, but my votes aren't worth that much, so it's not a big difference. Wish I was around when the huge payouts were being earned, so I could give more to the nice people who write good posts :-)
I was't here either. Joined earlier then all this I wrote about happened, but not early enough:
I think treating upvotes as a scarce resource is problematic. This is a platform with new content posted every second. Upvotes should be felt as unlimited so that curators can upvote everything in some way interesting, like on Reddit. But here, I find myself withholding votes on stuff I'd upvote on Reddit, because it will reduce my voting power.
However, that's only true via desktop access where I don't have a vote slider. On eSteem via mobile I have a slider so a 1% upvote feels more like an upvote on Reddit, but unlike Reddit I have a choice to make that upvote count much more.
I wasn't around here before the latest HF, so I'm operating on limited firsthand knowledge, but I feel that the switch to 10 full power votes per day may have been a bad idea. I also feel that a slider should be available by default and not only after a certain point is reached, or if some other software is used to interact with the block chain.
If it were up to me, I'd also implement a dividend system here where say 5% or 10% of all rewards go to everyone equally so that everyone contributing to the platform is better recognized as contributing to the value of the platform.
Cheers, and I hope improved curation is achieved in a future update.
If here everything was upvoted like on reddit there would be not enough steems for everyone and the rewards would be low anyway. My point is that in steemit ideology it is to create original content, but now we have so damn a lot of copy-pasters that it just gets lost. And non-original content gets upvotes for some reason.
I'm saying that the idea anyone would not have enough Steem is an artificial scarcity imposition. If people feel that upvoting is too costly, they'll do less of it. Think about it. If people only vote on 10 things or less per day, how are the needles going to be found in the haystack? There's just far too much noise and not enough signal.
The problem isn't behavioral. The problem is a result of the rules of the system leading to the emergence of current outcomes. I think it's just a matter of evolving the rules to the point curation is more greatly incentivized to amplify the signals to get through the noise.
You are not boring to me .. imagine me a 51, not a 68 trying to get noticed ..when some day some of my post never get to 10 cents.. and when i see stolen memes get to 50$ makes me sad..if this doesn t change , i suspect many if the newbies will leave the platform . Will remain only whales who will selfupvote ,to get the money they are used to ..it is, indeed ,sad
That's exactly what I'm talking about. In steemit terms it was to reward original content, in the rules it's said "please don't post something that can be found somewhere else in internet". Ans that's exactly what makes me feel this way, not even my personal rewards, but seeing a copy-pasted video from youtube with 50$+ reward. Not envy, but angry - just have a hypertrophied sense of justice
I know how you feel. It is indeed difficult to understand the kind of changes that happen here on steemit, and how things work. I try not to think too much about it for now. Maybe in a few months it will make more sense, who knows.
I feel pretty much the same way. Ever since HF19 I have received 15-30 upvotes on my posts no matter what I put. I could be 1 picture with a small paragraph or 20 pictures with a detailed write-up of each. It doesn't matter because I get the same amount of upvotes every time. I could post a drawing that took hours to do or a scribble on a page that took 30 seconds. I bet I'll get the same amount of upvotes.
I'm not sure what's really going on around here lately. There is no word of updates, improvements, fixes, etc. This seems to be as far as steemit can go unless there is a massive improvement both with the current system and with the interface. Right now it's broken but it could get better in the future so I'd say hang in there just like when steem was at $0.06 and there were really low rewards. At least now you can at least get $1 per post consistently. Just remember to blog because it's enjoyable and not because it's to get the money. If it's not fun anymore, maybe slow down on the number of posts you do. I only post every 2-4 days because the $3 I get is not worth my time and if I spend too much time, it's not enjoyable. I'm still here looking at other peoples content and commenting though.
I understand the way you feel. I don't post but I do vote and comment, by hand without bots, every day for the last 400+ days. We have lots of new people coming to steemit and its harder to vote for everyone I want to vote for. Lots more posts to read, because I do read them rather than just up voting without looking.
There is some chance, some people say a good chance, that the price of steem will go up a lot. Suppose each of your steem power is worth $10 in a few months or years. Then you can power down for one week and get $3815.
(4960 / 13 * $10 = $3815)
Or maybe steem will crash and there will be little or no money in it. Will you still post? A lot of people post on a lot of social media every day for no money. I think its fun to be here on steemit! That's why I am here Every Day. :-)
I still see your posts and appreciate them! I don't vote for every one of them because I am splitting my votes among more people now. But I would encourage you to keep posting! Do it because you enjoy it! Also, you never know who will be here on steemit next. Maybe someone who buys a lot of steem power and likes your posts. Maybe a new client who buys your art. Maybe people find you because steemit posts do very well on Google searches.
There are still a lot of possibilities here! Yes, it is a bit of a lottery and you don't know when you will hit it big with a large money payout. You can't control that. But you can be steady and consistent and your Steem Power will grow. A lot of people wish they had as much steem power as you and I have. Remember that voting earns you money too. I don't know how much you vote, but I'm happy with the good money I make here just from voting.
So as you can see, my simple advice is, STEEM ON!!! :-) Wishing you all the best!
I was posting after HF-18, when post rewards were 1-2 cents. I was posting when steem price was 0.4 cents. So - yes! I still will be posting, that's not my point.
"A lot of people post on a lot of social media every day for no money. I think its fun to be here on steemit!" I agree with this, its also a place to reach a bunch of different corners of the internet depending what you feel like writing about that day. Where as, at least my facebook, I couldn't write about cryptocurrency or anything tech related and get but a like or two.
I'm in the same boat as you, I've not been here nowhere near as long as you but feel the same pain. When I see my posts with 3+ hours poured into get seen by 3 people and upvoted by a single minnow. All that only when I pour SBD into voting services, without them I don't get a single click. Spam just sends all content down into oblivion before anyone gets to see it. The thing that really grinds my gears is when these quite big dolphins and even small whales don't post content but just some dumb picture and give only themselves the upvotes. It kinda seems like some communist sherade. Everyone in the lower tier gets pennies, it does not matter if they put effort or not. Then there are the old dogs who just laugh at the shenanigans and bank everything with no effort because they were the first ones here.
HF19 went from best change ever to absolute madness in 2.5 weeks.
True! We all were so exited when it just happened, but now it look completely no scene to even keep blogging. May be when steemit will turn to a desert with only spam cactuses....
It's ok to experiment with different forms of content when your blog isn't getting the rewards you want.
I've had to try a lot of different formats to keep up with the times and get out of reward slumps. It's not easy, but it pays off.
As long as there are more bots, and other upvote machines our good content will lost in the crowd.
I don't know much about bots and all - I'm just an artist artist after all (ooops, a poem)
In the beginning everything really looked like upvoting valuable content, so I could easily agree with it. Cause it looked like it, and I have seen "Yes, my post in not that good, his/hers is better, and she deserves a higher reward". What happens now - I have no idea.